Chapter 8: [Mending]

Passing through the long and gloomy corridor, the view suddenly opened up, and the light became bright.

The fragrance of herbs rushed to his face, and what came into view was a vibrant green, making Gao De feel as if the smell of decay on his body had been dispelled a lot.

This herb planting area, which did not cover a particularly large area, was distributed with several plots of land with different soil qualities.

Because herbs are essentially extremely delicate "flowers and plants" that require careful care.

Different herbs have different requirements for the growth environment, and some are even extremely extreme.

And not to mention external environments like temperature and water quality, just the requirements of different herbs for the soil environment are very complex.

Most herbs can grow in loose, fertile, and well-drained soil.

But some herbs like to grow in forest humus soil rich in humus, typically ginseng-type medicinal materials.

There are also herbs that like to grow in acidic or slightly acidic soil or like to grow on sandy beaches by the river.

Therefore, it is necessary to choose suitable soil for planting according to the growth habits and characteristics of the herbs themselves.

Herb cultivation is a profound discipline; it is not only necessary to be able to identify medicinal materials and know their habits like the back of one's hand, but also to know how to construct an environment suitable for their growth according to the habits of the medicinal materials, so as to ensure the survival rate of the medicinal materials, increase yield, and improve medicinal properties.

These tasks include but are not limited to "nutrient soil" configuration, thinning, fixing seedlings, deep plowing combined with fertilization to promote the improvement of soil physical properties, intertillage, weeding, fertilization, irrigation, watering, disease and pest control, plant shape adjustment... The bulk of Gao De's morning work is intertillage, fertilization, watering, and checking for diseases and pests.

Under normal circumstances, after becoming proficient, these tasks are simple repetitive work.

Because the types of herbs planted by Master Seda are fixed.

So even though Gao De was doing these tasks for the first time, relying on the memory left by the predecessor, he still completed the herb cultivation work very cleanly and without any mistakes.

After doing these, only the last item of his morning work remained.

Gao De walked in a hurry and came to a small room.

There were many iron cages in the room, and in each iron cage, there were five to ten mice with gray-brown fur.

These were the little gray mice specifically raised and bred by Master Seda for live experiments of potions.

Although human drug testing yields the most accurate results, even if human life is not so precious in this world, it is definitely not to the extent that Master Seda can recklessly test drugs on living people; in most cases, it is mainly animal testing.

Little gray mice have strong reproductive ability, low breeding costs, relatively low aggression, and under these premises, they have a high similarity to humans—referring to genetic similarity, not appearance.

Thus, little gray mice naturally became the best live test subjects.

Gao De poured some feed into the feed basin in each iron cage, filled them with water by the way, and then checked the status of all the little gray mice in the cages, finding that one of the little gray mice looked sickly and even lacked the energy to grab food.

After observing carefully again, Gao De found that the back of this little gray mouse was like "alopecia," a small piece of fur was completely detached, revealing the skin inside, slightly red.

"It seems to have caught some skin disease," Gao De made a judgment and nodded, "That's you then."

He picked up this sick little gray mouse from the iron cage.

Of course, Gao De was not going to treat it.

One is that he doesn't know how, and the other is that there is no need.

Because little gray mice are far less valuable than medicinal materials, the apprentices in the herb garden are not as attentive to the little gray mice as they are to medicinal materials, so some little gray mice will get sick from time to time.

The only ending for these sick little gray mice is "early detection, humane execution," so as not to spread the disease to other healthy little gray mice.

Gao De was not polite either; he grabbed the little gray mouse's head, twisted it hard along the neck direction, and with a crisp snap sound, the little gray mouse didn't even struggle before it lost its breath.

Gao De threw the dead little gray mouse aside, but his attention was on his mind.

Deep in his mind, a beautiful and ingenious crescent gemstone was blooming with spiritual light at this moment.

Some changes had occurred: inside the gemstone, two light spots and twelve dotted lines had appeared, forming two Big Dipper-style ladle patterns.

Each set of ladle patterns had seven points and six dotted lines, but at this moment, only the points at the starting position were flashing, and the remaining six points were dim.

It was not difficult to infer that it would be complete only after all seven points were lit.

The next moment, a familiar information interface floated before Gao De's "eyes."

Origin:

0-level—【Human】 (1/7), 【Gray-eyed Mouse】 (1/7)

Magic:

0-level—【Mage Hand】, 【Mending】

Compared to before, another term appeared in the origin information column: 【Gray-eyed Mouse】.

It was exactly the "scientific name" of the little gray mouse.

"Sure enough..." Gao De muttered to himself.

When he first saw this information interface, Gao De had already determined that origin was by no means only obtainable from humans, and it should be able to expand into multiple terms like the magic column, but he had only unlocked the human one so far.

When he went to the back mountain to bury Yilan's corpse, Gao De crushed a few unknown insects to verify his speculation, but no new terms appeared in the origin column.

Either the way to obtain origin was not "killing"... or those insects were too weak and not enough to provide origin.

After all, before the human term, there was a rank division: 0-level.

And to obtain 0-level origin, it was highly likely that it could only be obtained from 0-level creatures.

Yilan was a mage apprentice, according to the mage's rank division, which was a 0-level mage, just enough to provide origin.

The latter possibility was clearly greater.

Relying on speculation would not get the correct answer; it must be verified through experiments.

And in the herb garden, besides mage apprentices, there happened to be a kind of 0-level creature.

【Gray-eyed Mouse】, which is what ordinary people call little gray mice; although they are weak enough to be slaughtered, in terms of rank, they are really the same as mage apprentices, both 0-level.

Because, gray-eyed mice contain extremely thin earth vein creature bloodlines.

This thin earth vein creature bloodline cannot let them possess any supernatural abilities, nor can it let them possess the powerful strength of earth vein creatures, but it can let them no longer belong to the category of ordinary animals, but belong to the 0-level ranks—there are also gaps between 0-levels.

The speculation was confirmed, and the next things were a matter of course.

Killing seven humans is difficult, but killing seven little gray mice is easy.

Gao De immediately took action.

He grabbed another healthy little gray mouse from the iron cage.

The little gray mouse kicked its legs hard in Gao De's hand, making a sharp squeaking sound, but it was just in vain, like a weak girl who was about to be humiliated but had no power to resist.

Gao De examined the little gray mouse carefully for about tens of seconds, and after confirming that the panel had not changed at all, he silently stretched out his other hand toward this little gray mouse that seemed to have gotten used to being carried and stopped struggling.

With a crisp snap sound, the little gray mouse lost its breath. The next moment, another light spot lit up inside the gemstone.

Origin:

0-level—【Human】 (1/7), 【Gray-eyed Mouse】 (2/7)

"Sure enough, death is a necessary condition, but I don't know if it must be killed by me to count."

Gao De muttered in his heart.

This could be left to verify later, no need to rush for now.

The top priority was to obtain the first complete origin.

He put down the dead little gray mouse in his hand, and his gaze swept over those little gray mice in the iron cage who didn't know what was coming. Little gray mice were not valuable things, and there were often losses, so even if seven little gray mice died in one day, no one would care at all.

Plus Gao De was eager to know the effect of "origin," so immediately five more little gray mice sacrificed their lives for this.

Soon.

Origin:

0-level—【Human】 (1/7), 【Gray-eyed Mouse】 (7/7)

At this time, the crescent-shaped gemstone was still floating steadily in the very center of Gao De's Magic Star Sea, motionless.

Only, inside the gemstone, there were now seven flashing light spots, and the six dotted lines had become bright solid lines; the light spots and solid lines formed an inseparable model, like the "Big Dipper," slowly rotating, exceptionally beautiful.

"Come on, let me see what you are capable of."

Gao De said to himself in his heart, while his attention shifted to the two cantrips he had mastered in the magic column.

Each had a small yellow plus sign flashing.

He hesitated for a moment, then decided to choose Mending for the experiment.

【Mending】 (Transmutation, 0-level):

This spell can repair a break or tear in an object you touch, such as repairing a broken chain, or a key broken into two halves, a torn cloak, a leaking wine bag, etc.

As long as the break or tear is no larger than 1 foot in any dimension, you can repair it without leaving a trace.

This spell can physically repair a magic item or a construct, but it will not restore the magic on such objects.

Gao De clicked the yellow plus sign behind Mending again with his intention.

"Add points."

The change happened instantly.

Inside the gemstone, that complete "Big Dipper" representing the 【Gray-eyed Mouse】 origin stopped rotating and flowed out, directly swimming out from inside the crescent gemstone.

They moved toward the magic model representing 【Mending】.

The so-called magic model is the foundation for a mage to cast spells.

It is composed of stars in the Magic Star Sea, and its appearance resembles a constellation composed of stars in the vast universe.

It's just that the lines between the constellations commonly seen in books are artificially connected for observation and understanding of the composition of the constellations, while the lines between magic models are real.

Mages follow the guidance of spell formulas, use mental power to pull stars in the Magic Star Sea, and use mental power as a scaffold to fix the stars, thereby constructing a magic model composed of stars.

Once the magic model is successfully constructed, it means the mage has initially mastered the spell, and from then on, can cast the corresponding spell through the magic model.

The structure of each magic model is different, and it can even be said that the differences are huge, with strict requirements for the number of stars and the distance and direction between stars, and even a slight difference will not work.

So wanting to master a spell is an extremely difficult and time-consuming thing; under normal circumstances, it requires hundreds or even thousands of failures before one can successfully construct a magic model.

And now, the goal of the "Big Dipper" was this magic model that could be called the most important thing for a mage.

The "Big Dipper" was very fast, and in a moment, it had already crashed into the 【Mending】 magic model.

There was no Mars crashing into Earth.

The next moment, spiritual light flashed, and the seven flashing light spots actually merged into the magic model like swallows returning to their nests.

"This is..."

In Gao De's astonishment, the 【Mending】 magic model, which was already complete, seemed to be rejuvenated after the integration of the light spots, and began to grow new branches, starting to extend new lines and stars at certain nodes.

The whole process was very stable and natural; some nodes extended a line and a star, some nodes extended more, but these changes did not destroy the original basic structure of the magic model.

Clearly, only seven light spots were added, but the stars finally generated on the 【Mending】 magic model were far more than seven; a whole thirteen new stars were generated before it stopped.

The "Big Dipper" had disappeared, and the 【Mending】 magic model also returned to calm, with no new changes.

Looking at the magic model that had changed its appearance and was very different from the theoretical 【Mending】 model, some information instinctively surfaced in Gao De's mind.

These pieces of information told Gao De that the new magic model in front of him was still a 0-level Transmutation spell 【Mending】, and the effect had not changed; the function was still to repair the fine damage of the target object.

It was just that compared to the original Mending, it had an extra bit of something.

The Mending under the new magic model, when repairing magic items, would be able to restore the magic originally attached to such objects.

It seemed that only a small change had occurred, but Gao De's gaze was not so short-sighted; he clearly understood that this could already be considered a qualitative sublimation.

This process, using the terminology of the world before his transmigration, was "skill enhancement."

This kind of enhancement was not just a simple improvement of values, but a higher-level mechanism strengthening.

That simple information interface also underwent some changes.

Origin:

0-level—【Human】 (1/7), 【Gray-eyed Mouse】 (Used) Magic:

0-level—【Mage Hand】, 【Mending+】

The 0-level spell 【Mending】, under the action of origin, became 【Mending+】, and accordingly, the yellow plus sign that existed after its name also disappeared.

【Mending+】 (Transmutation, 0-level):

This spell can repair a break or tear in an object you touch, such as repairing a broken chain, or a key broken into two halves, a torn cloak, a leaking wine bag, etc.

As long as the break or tear is no larger than 1 foot in any dimension, you can repair it without leaving a trace.

This spell can physically repair a magic item or a construct, but it will not restore the magic on such objects.

Extra: While repairing a magic item, you will be able to restore the magic on that magic item.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 9 =====